What could have been a nightmarish scenario for President Cyril Ramaphosa will this week turn out to be an occasion for him to bask in the international limelight as he plays host to Brics, the motley collection of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa which has set itself up as the ideological rival of the G7 advanced economies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, an international outcast, will be a no-show, much to Ramaphosa’s relief, who has had to grovel and plead with him to stay at home. But he must have taken care to convince him without hurting his delicate ego, by playing dumb and powerless. You can imagine him saying: “You know, comrade, I’d like you to come, but our judges, man, they’re a big problem. They don’t listen.” The autocrat would realise that he either had to stay at home and preside over the invasion and the slaughter or come here and run the risk of being spirited out of the country in the dead of night like Omar al-Bashir. It was a no-brainer. He couldn’t countenance such a humiliation.
For Putin, though, attending the Brics summit in South Africa, signatory to the Rome statute, would have been a moment to savour; to cock a snook at his Western foes and to prove that, despite their sanctions against him and his oligarchs, he still has friends and won’t remain cocooned in the Kremlin. The summit over, Putin would have gone home leaving South Africa holding the baby, so to speak. But he will now participate via satellite, we’re told, which on its own must be an insult for such a proud man. Because it merely re-emphasises his isolation.
For Ramaphosa, the summit on home soil will also make up for the G7 snub when host Japan earlier this year invited and then disinvited him to the meeting in Hiroshima, replacing him with little-known Azali Assoumani, president of tiny Comoros, on the ostensible reason that he was chair of the AU. Assoumani came to power in a coup in 1999 and has been elected president three times.
There’s no doubt this slight hurt Ramaphosa. He had almost become a feature of the G7 summit, from where he’d regularly sent out selfies to bolster his flagging reputation at home. That it was Japan, a trading partner which has kept its nose clean in international affairs, that was doing the dirty was all the more surprising.
A country that supposedly cherishes human rights would welcome Putin, a mass murderer wanted by the international court of justice, and regard the Dalai Lama, a man of peace, as persona non grata
Despite its spirited promotion by some, Brics doesn’t count for much. Membership doesn’t hurt, though. We’re not complaining — who are we to look a gift horse in the mouth? A country with such unemployment needs all the friends it can get.
The only attraction is that one of its members is China, our biggest trading partner. But there’s no evidence to suggest that relations would be affected. It’s a nice-to-have. South Africa’s GDP doesn’t justify its membership of Brics, which is supposed to be a grouping of emerging superpowers to rival the G7. Countries such as Turkey, Mexico and even Nigeria are more deserving cases. But South Africa’s cachet is more than economic — the miracle of its birth, and an ideologically anti-Western leadership despite its capitalistic orientation.
But where Brics has had a perceptible influence on South Africa is in its foreign policy. It has almost become a vassal of Russia and China, the two main members. It has almost jettisoned its values and principles in its desire to belong. South Africa seems to take its cue from them before it can vote at the UN. We’ve become a useful tool in their ideological fight with the West, even when that militates against our own interests — the voluntary meat in the sandwich.
A country that supposedly cherishes human rights would welcome Putin, a mass murderer wanted by the international court of justice, and regard the Dalai Lama, a man of peace, as persona non grata. Also, to be in the good books of communist China, we’ve decided to keep Taiwan, a democracy, at arm’s length. The irony is that Brics was founded on the basis of non-interference, yet we appear keen to forsake our principles to not offend Beijing. But maybe it has to do with our mettle. For instance, the Dalai Lama lives in India, yet the Chinese seem to be fine with that.
But the biggest and most shameful disappointment has been South Africa’s spineless support for Putin’s invasion and incineration of Ukraine. No amount of verbal dexterity can hide the fact that South Africa has thrown its weight — and whatever is left of its reputation — behind the Russian leader, and is oblivious to the carnage and suffering he’s inflicting on his neighbour.
Even Ramaphosa’s risible attempt at peacemaking, laughed off by Putin, was obviously to mask that support and to hoodwink Western allies who could put economic pressure on us, with disastrous consequences, should they wish to.
Our friendship with Russia is of little economic value. We benefit more from trading with Eswatini. It’s also not far-fetched to think that were China to invade Taiwan — the communists are studying the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its international repercussions — South Africa would meekly follow Beijing’s line. In weighing up its foreign policy options, the government no longer regards its own interests as paramount or inviolable. It has become hostage to the highest bidder.
Groups such as Brics are fine as long as we aren’t required to insert ourselves in high- stakes ideological warfare that is detrimental to our own interests.
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